Telco partners? Microsoft also didn’t say if more telcos and service providers have signed up to become Office 365 syndicators. Office 365 syndicators basically resell Office 365 while wrapping additional services around Microsoft’s cloud suite. Those value-added services allow syndicators to manage billing and pricing for Office 365, a luxury and Microsoft partner perk that traditional VARs and MSPs lack.

We’ve reached out to Microsoft for an update on each of those points. A spokeswoman for the company is reviewing our questions and plans to loop back with Talkin’ Cloud.Microsoft launched Office 365 as the successor to BPOS (Business Productivity Online Suite) in June 2011. The Office 365 suite, starting at about $6 per user per month, can include applications like Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Lync — a unified communications platform that will ultimately evolve into a full-blown hosted PBX.

Generally speaking, I think Office 365 will gradually become a very successful cloud platform, especially in businesses that no longer want to manage on-premise Exchange servers. But Office 365 has hit some bumps and suffered a few outages since launching, and some partners remain wary of Office 365 since Microsoft handles the billing and pricing relationship with end-customers.

Websites are now required by law to gain your consent before applying cookies. We use cookies to improve your
browsing experience. Parts of the website may not work as expected without them. By closing or ignoring this
message, you are consenting to our use of cookies.